o What follows is a brief and updated discussion based on a section I wrote in 2014 in my report published by Penal Reform International as part of an ongoing international campaign to abolish the death penalty. In February 2015, I was invited by the Albert Kennedy Trust in London…
Read MoreAs a Muslim woman of South Asian descent, now living in the U.S., I have to admit that I have a certain curiosity about how Muslim women live in other parts of the world. I long to know others like me – yet unlike me: do they go through the…
Read MoreA HUSBAND and wife in Pakistan can never be alone again. In between them sit the clerics of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). However small the space may be, the mullah in the middle would like to prescribe what is to happen between them. He tells the wife that…
Read MoreMy story is neither every Muslim woman’s story nor do I consider myself a benchmark against which to measure Muslim women. I am, however, someone who wears the face veil (niqab). And I wear it unflinchingly and unapologetically. There are many women who share my experience, who feel neither oppressed…
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Dear Elizabeth: My son is two years-old and all he does is play. Should I put him into an early-education program? Dear Concerned: Absolutely not! I wouldn’t put a two year-old into an early education class for several reasons. First, let me start by saying that a two year-old child…
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A week ago my hijab-wearing Pakistani mom was driving down the street when a man in a silver Lexus began to honk and gesture wildly. My mom ignored him, keeping her gaze planted firmly on the road ahead. When she reached a red light and slowed to a stop, this…
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Changes to the Bill, the Community Hearing and the Mayor’s Budget A great deal has happened since my January 2016 article on Paid Family Leave, including the Community Hearing at the D.C. Council. Here are the updates on D.C.’s Universal Paid Leave Act of 2015 and what you need to…
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I’m 33-years-old and still single. Well, the “still” is the lamentation some Muslims in the community add when they describe my status. The Muslim culture, not unlike most others, abides by a set of expectations when it comes to women, marriage and motherhood. A woman’s identity is strongly braided with…
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We brought my father home from the hospital two weeks ago, so he could die in peace. I’m told once the death rattle comes it’s a matter of hours and possibly even a few days.
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Bare, grey walls tinged with a hint of yellow inside this familiar Moroccan orphanage. Crib after crib lined up next to one another with no spaces in between. Toddlers, laying silently on their faded green polka-dot sheets, likely funded by a charitable relief program. One child, perhaps walking now, is…
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